Hardware effects on 30FPS cap?

[Questionable]

what now 15fpsÉ

[Katlan]

ff13 is 30 http://www.lensoftruth.com/?p=18555

only racing(some) fighting and some fps games are 60fps on consoles

But HALLO, ff14 was running in 3D at E3. That can't be done at 30fps, the cap is obviously going to be removed.

even if the cap is removed, if they don't allow SLI/CF is a mute point anyways since nobody will get a steady 60fps w/o dual cards. I have this strong feeling that SE's way of making XIV "better then modern tech" is by not allowing it to take advantage of all modern tech lol

[shaddix]

what now 15fpsÉ

If it's capped at 30fps then 15fps is the max for 3D. The engine has to be able to render 60 unique frames per second in order for the game to play at 30fps in 3D.

[shaddix]

even if the cap is removed, if they don't allow SLI/CF is a mute point anyways since nobody will get a steady 60fps w/o dual cards. I have this strong feeling that SE's way of making XIV "better then modern tech" is by not allowing it to take advantage of all modern tech lol

Let's hope that triple-screen 3D E3 demo didn't require quad sli gtx 480s and some last-minute hack from nvidia to run acceptably.

[Arximiro]

God that sounds like a nightmare... a game running across 3 screens and being 3D. Two things that I would hate.

[tri]

If it's capped at 30fps then 15fps is the max for 3D. The engine has to be able to render 60 unique frames per second in order for the game to play at 30fps in 3D.

And this is the reason for 120hertz computer monitor like the Samsung 2233RZ.

[Heatsink]

If it's capped at 30fps then 15fps is the max for 3D. The engine has to be able to render 60 unique frames per second in order for the game to play at 30fps in 3D.

The driver renders a pair of frames for each frame sent to it by the game, so it doesn't matter how high or low your framerate is for the driver to be able to toggle between showing the left and right eye views on alternating frames being sent to the monitor. Think of it like your monitor's refresh rate -- it's fixed at a certain rate no matter how low your game's FPS is. Since the driver must be set up to do stereo anyway (rendering to a stereo surface) I'd imagine that the left/right view toggling is done in hardware, in which case your machine could crash and the video card will still display a stereo (still) image.

[darkblade77]

Ironically, this still means that you need a GPU setup capable of running the game at a conceptual 60FPS for it to display at 30FPS in 3D. Perhaps slightly more, depending on how efficient the driver really is.

[shaddix]

The driver renders a pair of frames for each frame sent to it by the game, so it doesn't matter how high or low your framerate is for the driver to be able to toggle between showing the left and right eye views on alternating frames being sent to the monitor. Think of it like your monitor's refresh rate -- it's fixed at a certain rate no matter how low your game's FPS is. Since the driver must be set up to do stereo anyway (rendering to a stereo surface) I'd imagine that the left/right view toggling is done in hardware, in which case your machine could crash and the video card will still display a stereo (still) image.

I was under the impression ff14 was going to have native 3D support, not a 2d>3d conversion. If that isn't the case then we might be screwed with fps cap

[darkblade77]

I was under the impression ff14 was going to have native 3D support, not a 2d>3d conversion. If that isn't the case then we might be screwed with fps cap

Nobody actually knows yet.

However, the 3D stereoscopic setup they had at E3 was produced via nVidia 3D Vision.

[levish]

30FPS cap is good for smoothing out the experience if your computer has a habit of varying wildly between 30-60 and possibly lower power consumption / gpu temps. I used to be a big fan of uncapping the FPS but FF14 isn't a twich/reflex game from what I gather and split second timing isn't critical.

heck with incoming 120hz monitors (not fake 120/240hz TV's) even bouncing around between 60-85hz could be annoying.

[mundie]

30FPS cap is good for smoothing out the experience if your computer has a habit of varying wildly between 30-60 and possibly lower power consumption / gpu temps. I used to be a big fan of uncapping the FPS but FF14 isn't a twich/reflex game from what I gather and split second timing isn't critical.

heck with incoming 120hz monitors (not fake 120/240hz TV's) even bouncing around between 60-85hz could be annoying.

I'm not a fan of the blur that's introduced when you look around (at least I think it's part of it, ffxi was the same). If I'm scanning an area for something, say a mining point, I'll be looking around constantly. The other day I had to stop and take a break at one point, because it was messing with my vision.

Edit: In before monitor refresh rate. I've got a grey-to-grey of about 5ms iirc.

[Cjskater]

If I'm scanning an area for something, say a mining point, I'll be looking around constantly. The other day I had to stop and take a break at one point, because it was messing with my vision.

Edit: In before monitor refresh rate. I've got a grey-to-grey of about 5ms iirc.

I saw it as well, it's a PITA while trying to look for chests during leves. I'm pretty sure it actually is some sort of ghosting though, granted I've never seen it that bad before. I took a screenshot to test it just to make sure and there was nothing on it. I should have tried 30hz to see if it changed anything...

[mundie]

I saw it as well, it's a PITA while trying to look for chests during leves. I'm pretty sure it actually is some sort of ghosting though, granted I've never seen it that bad before. I took a screenshot to test it just to make sure and there was nothing on it. I should have tried 30hz to see if it changed anything...

I've only ever really noticed it in ffxi and now ffxiv. It's my best guess it's a side-effect or some technique they use to make 30 fps slightly more bearable, but I can't know that for sure of course, I guess if the screenies you took were clean that debunks it, but it still doesn't explain why it's particularly bad in SE MMOs.

It's particularly noticeable if you try to focus on somebody else's name while rotating the camera at a medium to high speed. It's just a complete smear.

Edit:

I read up a little and now I'm almost certain they're applying motion blur to make the 30 fps cap more palatable in both games. At the very least it's a common solution. If they are, I don't like our chances for a cap of 60 or indeed an uncapped game, but I'd be very happy if they do raise or remove it.

[Lucavi]

I think they do use motion blur to smooth out their fps cap. You can see it in the cutscenes, as well as if you're in an area with a lot of light bloom, such as running past a glowing fungus in a cave.

[Katlan]

I think they do use motion blur to smooth out their fps cap. You can see it in the cutscenes, as well as if you're in an area with a lot of light bloom, such as running past a glowing fungus in a cave.

A lot of games use motion blur now-a-days, but on PC games its usually a toggled feature since it requires more processor power

[Cjskater]

I think they do use motion blur to smooth out their fps cap. You can see it in the cutscenes, as well as if you're in an area with a lot of light bloom, such as running past a glowing fungus in a cave.

I actually found a cutscene screenshot just now that has some sort of motion blur in it, looks like what telepoints would do to chars in FF11 (duplicates you). Weird I can't see it in any in-game screenshots though, specifically was turning the camera to test it in those too.

Whatever they are doing, it kills the eyes.

[shidobu]

I saw it as well, it's a PITA while trying to look for chests during leves.

>implying you ever found any
hahahah

[Cjskater]

>implying you ever found any
hahahah

fgt, I so did... when I did them solo...

[Kyrra]

This was posted in the last discussion about framerate.

http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html

Just stare at the motion difference between 30 and 60FPS. It makes quite a difference.